The most critical area of the layout is the throat. The consensus from Saturdays session was that we need a curved 3 way turnout. I've been working on this over the last while.

First step was to establish our radii. We need two left radii and one right. These turned out to be: 8', 12' and 10' respectiuvely.

I used the flex track that we curved to calculate the radii using the chord and segment method. (Measure from two points on the curve to get chord and then the distance from the chord center to get the segment. Plug these into your circle calculator: http://www.1728.org/circsect.htm).

After some faffing about and realising that there is no "off the shelf" curved 3 way turnout template, I used a simple idea from Rice.

I made a left curved turnout template with 8' and 12' radii respectively, then a wye with 12' and 10' radii. I cut the common track in half and taped the two together, being careful to maintain gauge. This seems to work well.

I spent much of yesterday gluing timbers to the template:

This morning I placed the template in position and overlaid some track templates of the appropriate radius, to get a clearer sense of where things are going:

I all looks well I think.

I'll make one turnout at a time, fix and confirm we like it before going on to the next. There will be some RTP turnouts but I like the idea of a curving layout.

BTW, for those who want to make their own turnouts, you can't do better than these books:

I photocopied the template at the location of the crossing. This tells me where the timbers go. I taped the copy to a scrap piece of ply and glued down strips of copper clad strip in between the timbers. I have a ton of this stuff left over from my 4mm days.

After that I soldered on the vee making sure the nose is over a timber. I then shaped the wing rails making sure the knuckles line up with the vee. This took a few tries on the first one but I got better as I progressed. There should be a sight line along the wing rail and through the vee. Wheels must go through this smoothly and it is the key to a successful turnout.

I completed the othe two, removed them from the template and trimmed them:

Over the last couple of days, I've been working on the 3 way turnout. It is more or less finished:

The plywood to which I taped the template was warped so I screwed it down to another layout board to keep everything flat. To that end, I added weight as I added rail to ensure things were kept flat as the solvent went off.

As far as I can, I have tested that the crossings work, so quite pleased.

I've done two blades so far and have two left to do.

I've also got tiebars to install. I want to do better than the old copper clad strip and have some JLTRT etched tiebars. Never done that before.

I'm also using Exactoscale lost wax brass fishplates as can be seen at the heels.

Yes, well, the tiebars are even more home brewed now. Doing the 3 way, I found the tabs that solder into the rail web are fragile at the half etch and tend to break. I installed some wire threaded through drilled holes. Much stronger. I should post a picture.

I'll have a pause for a bit now until I get the team together for a conflab. I also have some wooden timbers on order so will wait for those before constructing more turnouts.

What excellent cumulative progress which can now be appreciated through your latest photos. You must be pleased, as all your planning is producing a splendid looking railway.

Is that the Dapol autocoach? I saw one at a recent exhibition, in GWR livery and was so impressed, that I very almost came home with it! The extra detail capable through 7mm scale is breath-taking and your post shows the roof detail very well.

You have my full attention and I'll have my new tablet next to my work bench to follow progress.

Best,

Bill

____________________At 6'4'', Bill is a tall chap, then again, when horizontal he is rather long and people often used to trip over him! . . . and so a nickname was born

Today, I thought I'd have a go at "improving" a Peco turnout. These do look generally very good. However, the most common complaint I read is the "coffin" at the tiebar. Turnouts with locks had these but they were not everywhere.

Here's the result:

I removed the three timbers beneathe the box. I then removed the blades and cut the pivots off. The loose heel connection on teh Peco T/O is a rail joiner, this was filed and cut away.

I used C&L timbers and Peco slide chairs to replace those that I had cut out.

C&L cast brass fishplates were used to give a more realistic representation of the loose heel.

The tiebars were discussed earlier. They are a faff but look pretty good.

The only thing I couldn't do anything about were the stock rail rebates for the blades.

The gaps between stock rail and blade are pretty large but necessary I have found to cater for the FS specs.

Something I don't see much modelled is catch points. On my layout there are two sidings where the running line needs to be protected from runaways.

Over the last couple of days I made these:

Standard turnout building techniques without the need for a common crossing. I will probably install a Tortoise underneath, that way if we are really feeling keen we can follow prototype practice. Hope that this doesn't happen:

Having been taken to task by Jim Snowden in a RMWeb thread about my blade gaps, I had a rethink and have improved them a lot:

I got the gap to be ~2.5mm vs 3.5 - 4mm before. I was careful to check with a wheelset to confirm that the flanges don't collide with the blade tip.

I wish I'd read Jims article in MRJ 99 about making 0 FS gauge (32mm) turnouts more realistic before. In a similar fashion to 00 SF, the key is reducing gauge through the turnout to fine up flageways and blade gaps.

There are 3 sub gauges: 0-MF - 31.5mm gauge, 0-SF - 31.25mm gauge and 0-XF - 31mm gauge. These allow the use of existing wheelsets. You do need specific roller gauges for easch sub gauge. There is only a need to gradually reduce the gauge of plain track leading to the turnout. Fascinating stuff.

Over the last day, I have refined the other turnouts that I built so we now have a good baseline.

All material submitted to this web site is the responsibility of the respective contributor.
By submitting material to this web site you acknowledge that you accept full responsibility
for the material submitted.

Unless stated otherwise, all the material displayed on this web site, including all text,
photographs, drawings and other images, is copyright and the property of the respective
contributor. Registered members are welcome to use it for their own personal non-commercial
modelmaking purposes. It must not be reproduced or re-published elsewhere in any form,
or used commercially, without first obtaining the owner's express permission.